How to Improve Your Facebook Ad Relevance Diagnostics (And What They Actually Mean)

First of all, do you want someone else to do the heavy lifting?

Meta can be a lot to take in. Between understanding the diagnostics, building the right audiences, creating content that actually converts and keeping up with the platform’s constant updates, it can be a lot to manage alongside running a business.

That’s exactly where we come in. Here at Climb and Conquer, we live and breathe paid social every day, and know exactly how to improve your Facebook ad relevance diagnostics. Whether your ads have stalled, you’re starting from scratch, or just want a second pair of expert eyes on what you’re already running, we’d love to help!

What is the Facebook Ad Relevance Diagnostic? 

You might have heard of the ‘Facebook Ad Relevance Score’ and wondered where it went. Don’t worry, it hasn’t disappeared! Meta just gave it a rebrand, now called the Meta Ad Relevance Diagnostics.

The Meta Ad Relevance Diagnostics gives you three separate rankings that together paint a picture of how your ads are performing in terms of quality, engagement and conversion. You can find these columns in the ads tab in Meta Ads Manager with the performance view, or you can add them into a custom view if you want them front and centre when you log in.

You can rank as: 

• Above Average
• Average
• Below Average: bottom 35%
• Below Average: bottom 20%
• Below Average: bottom 10% 

These rankings are based on how your ad performed in the past ad auctions compared to other ads competing for the same audience, so it’s a relative measure not an absolute one.

If your ads haven’t had much delivery yet, you might not see a rating at all, simply because there isn’t enough data to make the comparison meaningful. There are also other optimisations and settings that may not allow all of these rankings to show.

The three rankings explained 

Think of the three rankings as three different lenses where Meta views your ad. Here’s what each one is actually measuring. 

• Quality Ranking looks at how your ad’s quality compares to other ads competing for the same audience. This is Meta’s way of assessing whether people consider your ad a good experience or one they’d rather not see.

• Engagement Rate Ranking measures how likely people are to interact with your ad – things like clicks, reactions, comments and shares, compared to other ads going after the same audience

• Conversion Rate Ranking looks at how likely someone who sees your ad is to complete the goal you’ve set for it. Whether that’s a purchase, a form fill, a sign-up or something else, compared to other ads with the same objective targeting the same audience. 

My quality ranking is below average, what should I do?

Meta’s ad system is built to reward ads that create a good experience for users. Higher quality ads perform better in the auction because Meta actively wants to show people things they will find valuable. If your quality ranking is struggling, here are two things to consider:

• Don’t mislead people: Make sure your ad accurately represents your product or service. Clickbait headlines, exaggerated claims or withholding information just to get someone to click through will work against you. If someone clicks one thing and gets another, Meta will take note of that.

• Follow Meta’s design best practices: One of the most common issues seen are ads that ignore safe zones, particularly on stories or reels, where Meta’s own captions will cover parts of your graphic. If your key message is sitting where a caption appears, it will be hidden. 

Meta has a lot of best practices for graphics, find out more information here or consider a deeper dive into creative content with the Meta Blueprint Creative Strategy Professional training course. 

My engagement rate ranking is below average, what should I do?

Your engagement rate ranking is part of your Meta ad relevance ranking and measures how likely people are to interact with your ad. This is Meta’s way of assessing whether people actually want to engage with what you’re putting in front of them.

If this ranking is below average, it can usually be a sign that either the content isn’t resonating with the audience seeing it, or the wrong people are seeing it altogether. The good news is that both of these issues are fixable.

Tips to improve your engagement rate ranking:

• Make sure your ad is relevant to the people you’re targeting: It sounds obvious, but this can be the most common culprit. Think about who your audience actually is and whether this specific ad would genuinely appeal to them. A mismatch between your content and your audience will always show up here. 

• Give people a reason to stop scrolling: Ask yourself, why would someone interact with an ad? Is it entertaining or educational? Does it solve a problem your audience has? Put yourself in their shoes and think about what they would want to click on, comment or share with a friend. 

My conversion rate ranking is below average, what should I do?

Your conversion rate ranking measures how likely people are to complete your campaign goal after seeing your ad. It’s important to note that some industries will naturally have lower conversion rates than others. If you’re selling high-end furniture or luxury services, you’re going to convert at a lower rate than someone selling something for £10, and that is completely normal.

If your ranking is struggling, there are two areas worth reviewing:

• Check your call to action (CTA): Your CTA is the button or phrase that tells someone what to do next. If you’re running a sales campaign but using a vague CTA like Learn More, you’re likely losing people at the final hurdle. Match your CTA to your goal: Shop Now, Get Offer or Book Now all signal clear intent and tend to drive stronger actions.

• Think about your audience temperature: A completely cold audience are people who have never heard of your brand, are naturally less likely to convert straight away than people who already know you. Retargeting warmer audiences who are people who have visited your website, engaged with your content or are already in your database, can make a significant difference to your conversion rate ranking. 

The most important thing to remember

Here is the key takeaway we really want you to hold onto. These rankings are a diagnostic tool, not a report card. Understanding how to improve your Facebook ad relevance diagnostics starts with knowing what you’re actually trying to fix.

An ad can be below average across all three rankings and still be delivering great results for your business. Equally, an ad can rank well and still be falling flat on the metrics that matter to you. Your primary focus should always be your actual campaign objective, purchases, leads, landing page views or whatever you set out to achieve. If you’re hitting those goals, these rankings are secondary information.

If your results are underperforming and you’re not sure why, these rankings give you a structured way to diagnose the problem. They show you where you stand relative to other advertisers and point you towards the areas most worth improving.

How can we help?

Get in touch today for a FREE audit of your paid Meta ads. No pressure, no jargon, just a straight talking look at what’s working, and what we’d do to improve your ads.